Lucy Potter

• Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Oct 18 2016, 16:10:22 UTC

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Died, in Bellefonte, at the residence of Edward C. Humes, on Sunday morning, the 30th of May A. D. 1875, Mrs. Lucy Potter, relict of Hon. William W. Potter, deceased, aged eighty-four years, nine months, and two days.

Mrs. Potter was a member of a large and rather remarkable family; her father having been born in 1728, married in 1747, died in 1794; children to the number of nineteen being born to him, the eldest in 1748, the youngest in 1790—their birth extending over a period of forty-two years. William Winters, the father of the deceased, came from Berks county to Northumberland, now Lycoming county, in the year 1778, having purchased the farm lately known as the Judge Grier farm, near what was called Newberry, but now within the corporate limits of the city of Williamsport. Mr. Winters was twice married. His first wife was Ann Boone, a sister of Colonel Daniel Boone, famous in the early annals of Kentucky. His marriage took place in the year 1747 in the then province of Virginia. By this union there were issue eleven children, four males and seven females. His eldest daughter, Hannah, married in Rockingham county, Virginia, Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of President Lincoln. Shortly before his death, Lincoln, who was killed by the Indians, visited his father-in-law at what is now Williamsport, and John Winters, his brother-in-law, returned with him to Kentucky, whither Mr. Lincoln had removed after his marriage; John being deputed to look after some lands taken by Colonel Daniel Boone and his father.

They travelled on foot from the farm, by a route leading by where Bellefonte now is, the Indian path "leading from Bald Eagle to Frankstown."

John Winters visited his sister, Mrs. Potter, in 1843, and wandering to the hill upon which the Academy is situated, a messenger was sent for him, his friends thinking he had lost himself; but he was only looking for the path he and Lincoln had trod sixty years before, and pointed out with his finger the course from Spring creek, along Buffalo run, to where it crosses the "Long Limestone Valley," as the route they had travelled.

Upon the death of Mr. Winters's first wife, in 1771, he again, in 1774, married. His second wife was Ellen Campbell, who bore him eight children, three males and five females, of which latter the subject of this notice was the youngest.

The father of Mrs. Potter died in 1794, and in 1795 Mrs. Ellen Winters, his widow, was licensed by the courts of Lycoming county to keep a "house of entertainment" where Williamsport now is—where she lived and reared her own children as well as several of her step children.

Here all her daughters married, Mary becoming the wife of Charles Huston, who for a number of years adorned the bench of the Supreme Court of this State; Ellen, the wife of Thomas Burnside, who was a member of Congress, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and finally a Justice of the Supreme Court; Sarah, the wife of Benjamin Harris, whose daughter, Miss Ellen Harris, resides on Spring street in this borough; Elizabeth, the wife of Thomas Alexander, a carpenter and builder, who erected one of the first dwellings in Williamsport, at the corner of what are now Pine and Third streets in that city, and many of whose descendants are still living in Lycoming county; Lucy, the wife of William W. Potter, a leading politician in this county, who died on the 15th day of October, 1888, while a member of our national Congress.

Mrs. Potter continued with her mother's family in Lycoming county, frequently visiting her two sisters, Mrs. Huston and Mrs. Burnside, who resided in Bellefonte, where, in 1815, she was united in marriage, by Rev. James Linn, with William W. Potter, a young and rising lawyer, and son of General James Potter, one of the early settlers of the county. Here, with her husband until his death, and then, upon the marriage of her niece, Miss Lucy Alexander, with Mr. Edward C. Humes, she made her home, living continuously in this town since her marriage, and having survived her husband for the long period of thirty-seven years, being that length of time a widow.

Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30415/30415-h/30415-h.htm Lincoln County advocate., February 14, 1877 Canton, Dakota Territory, [S.D.])
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President Lincoln's Ancestry. Hon. Gideon Welles contributed to the January number of the Galaxy an article on the administration of Abraham Lincoln, which contains some interesting and hitherto unpublished information about Lincoln's ancestry. This was a subject of which Lincoln confessed his own ignorance. In 1875 there died in Bellefonte, Pa., a Mrs. Lucy Potter, who was a great-aunt of President Lincoln. Her father, William Winters, was born in 1728 and died in 1794. He emigrated from Berks county, Pa., to Northumberland, now Lycoming county, in 1728. He had by two wives nineteen children, and there was an interval of forty-two years between the birth of the oldest and that of the youngest. His first wife, whom he married in 1747 in the then province of Virginia, was Ann Boone, a sister of Col. Daniel Boone, the famous Kentucky pioneer. By her he had four sons and seven daughters. The eldest daughter, Hannah, married Abraham Lincoln, grandfather of the President, in Rockingham county, Va, He emigrated to Kentucky from which state he made a visit to his father-in-law in Pennsylvania, and when he returned took with him a brother-in-law, John Winters. Not long afterward Lincoln was killed, by the Indians, leaving a son six years old, who became the father of the President. Mr. William Winters married his second wife, Ellen Campbell, in 1774, and from this union were born three sons and five daughters, of whom Lucy, who died less than two years ago, was youngest. After the death of William Winters his widow was licensed to keep a "house of entertainment," where Williamsport now is. There she lived and reared her own large family and several of her stepchildren. Her daughters seem to have been very fortunate in their marriages. The husbands of two of them became Justices of the Supreme Court of the state, and Lucy, the youngest, was the wife of W. W.. Potter, who died while a member of Congress in 1838. She survived him thirty-seven years, continuing a widow. What is new in these facts is the connection of the Winters family with the Lincoln's, which was not known to the President. Mr. Welles says that he has no doubt of the authenticity of the relation, and that the President's ancestry in this country, paternal and maternal- Lincoln, Boone and Winters, is to be traced to the county of Berks, in Pennsylvania.

Info supplied by B.Helmer* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 18 2019, 22:39:47 UTC